The press lovingly covered the spanking delivered to Microsoft by the city of New York for plastering butterfly decals all over to promote the launch of MSN 8. “Illegal, irresponsible and dangerous defacing of public property,” according to the letter from the city.

When you read the articles, did you realize the decals were the plastic kind that stick to glass without adhesive – the ones you can peel right off? […] continued “MICROSOFT BUTTERFLIES”

You’ve probably gotten one of the infamous “Nigerian e-mail” messages. A member of the Nigerian government, or a son of a Zimbabwean diplomat, or a widow of an African dictator, needs your help to get millions of dollars out of the country. Your reward will be twenty or thirty or forty percent of the money. […] continued “NIGERIAN E-MAIL SCAM”

A client inspired me to discover how to leave that unchanged, but also create an icon that opens a new Outlook window directly to a particular folder – i.e., one click to your calendar or your to-do list. […] continued “OPEN OUTLOOK TO A PARTICULAR FOLDER”

Here’s one that didn’t get reported widely. Yesterday afternoon, the largest and most sophisticated attack ever was launched against servers worldwide that play a crucial role in running the entire Internet. The Internet is enormously resilient and users never noticed a slowdown or problem – but the attack came far closer to succeeding than anyone would have predicted. […] continued “ATTACK ON THE INTERNET”

Microsoft announced a new, simplified scheme for determining how long it will support its products. Most small businesses and home users upgrade often enough that the details don’t matter – the products are supported for a good long time. The announcement mostly gives big companies predictable timetables on which to base their licensing and upgrade plans. […] continued “WINDOWS XP LIFESPAN”

Great news for W&G fans: A new two-minute Wallace & Gromit short can be downloaded for free from Atom Films, and on October 22, nine more Wallace & Gromit shorts will be available from the same site for $9.95. The next project from Ardman Films will be a full-length Wallace & Gromit movie, due sometime next year. […] continued “NEW WALLACE & GROMIT”

Reading the papers might have given you the impression that Apple is a strong contender, with a solid operating system, fabulous products, and booming sales.

Sadly, the business news is frequently reported with the same quest for sensationalism and lack of objectivity that has poisoned political reporting. Nothing has changed for Apple. […] continued “APPLE CONTINUES TO LOSE GROUND”

You may not realize it, but Palm is struggling for its life, and many analysts don’t expect it to be in the handheld market for much longer – perhaps a few years, no more.

I think the devices running Microsoft PocketPC software are far superior to Palms – significantly better displays, and I’ve had far more luck making them work reliably with applications on a desktop computer. […] continued “PRICE DROPS SOON ON POCKET PCs”

Count on The Onion to give you the news that really matters. Here’s an article from this week’s issue that nicely catches the flavor of the recording industry’s wrongheaded attempts to shut down all the services that allow us to listen to music.

Looking for a new way to waste some time online? Try visiting Dictionaraoke, which features one of those concepts I wish I had thought of. You know the online dictionaries that offer spoken pronunciations of words? Well, Dictionaraoke has taken popular songs and put together the vocals entirely from those online dictionaries. […] continued “DICTIONARAOKE”

Teledesic was the brainchild of Bill Gates and Craig McCaw, set up a few years ago to launch a constellation of low-earth orbiting satellites and provide global high-speed Internet service. An ambitious plan, but during the late ‘90s ambitious broadband plans looked exciting and worthwhile. Another company with a similar vision, Iridium, tanked a while ago, and yesterday Teledesic announced that it was going to cut its losses and stop work on the satellite venture. […] continued “TELEDESIC KILLS GLOBAL SATELLITE PLAN”

Thirty years ago, on June 9, 1972, I saw the Rolling Stones at the Hollywood Palladium, the smallest venue they played in the United States on that tour. On November 4, I’ll be at the 2,400-seat Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles, the smallest venue they’re playing in the United States this time around. […] continued “THE ROLLING STONES”

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